Ten days after the crossed veto of Russia and the United States buried the United Nations mission for Western Sahara in the Security Council after 35 years of deployment, the two powers met again this Tuesday at the UN General Assembly before the cameras of UN Web TV.
Since 1963, the highest forum of the organization established that the former Spanish colony is a “non-autonomous territory, pending decolonization.” However, Morocco's permanent representative to the UN, Omar Hilale, warned that the historic debate on the issue is now meaningless, given that Western Sahara will continue to be under the sovereignty of Rabat "until the end of time", according to transcripts of his intervention cited by the Moroccan press.
Hilale directly blamed Algeria for “perpetuating” this regional conflict, as well as the “humanitarian drama” represented by the exile since 1975 of thousands of Sahrawis in the refugee camps of Tindouf, in southwestern Algeria. Along the same lines, the US ambassador, Mike Waltz, argued before the General Assembly that, in the face of “illusory” and “impracticable” positions, the Moroccan autonomy plan remains the only viable solution to the Sahara dispute, which is why the veto imposed by Moscow in the Security Council has represented “a step backwards.”
Russia was obliged to justify the blockade on October 30, which has opened the door to transferring a debate closed for now in the Security Council to the General Assembly. The vetoed resolution, which had been drafted by the United States, imposed in Moscow's opinion that the autonomy plan offered by Rabat in the Sahara will be established as a framework for dialogue, without taking into account other proposals, such as independence through a self-determination referendum defended by the Polisario Front. Russia attempted to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso) for another year, but was met with a reciprocal veto from Washington.
The Russian deputy representative to the UN, Anna Evstigneeva, warned this Tuesday in the General Assembly that the United States intended to strip the Sahrawi people of their "historical claims." Algeria, a country allied with Russia, has stressed in the words of its diplomatic delegate, Amar Bendjama, that the Sahara must continue to be “a matter of decolonization”, in which its people can freely decide their future. Both parties insisted that the UN must continue its mediation until a solution to the conflict is reached. The leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Gali, declared this Tuesday afternoon the “state of general mobilization.” The independence movement broke the ceasefire in force with Morocco since 1991 in 2020, after the Moroccan army intervened in the main border post between Mauritania and the Sahara.
Morocco needs to convince the majority of the 193 States of the UN General Assembly that the Sahara is no longer a colonial territory in order to remove it from a list that includes, among others, the British enclave of Gibraltar. The head of Moroccan diplomacy, Naser Burita, has already warned that in the Fourth Committee of the Assembly, in charge of decolonization political affairs, “there is no right of veto” as in the Security Council.
On the Gibraltar list
On October 15, this UN forum renewed the inclusion of the Sahara in the list of “non-autonomous” territories with the favorable vote of Morocco, since it incorporated the mention of resolution 2797 of the Security Council, which a year ago endorsed the Rabat autonomy plan as a starting basis for a negotiation. There are few originating from colonial territories on the UN list, such as that of Puerto Rico, promoted by the United States in 1953, or that of Hong Kong, negotiated in 1972 between the United Kingdom and China. These three countries are permanent members of the Security Council with the right to veto.
